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Half A*s Haley is trying to convince everyone that Tomlin was smart and that it wasn’t his fault that his defense sucked

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Don Kedic

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In recent weeks, there has been an increase in discourse surrounding Tomlin and the Steelers’ defense that struggled in 2025. Pittsburgh finished 18th in the NFL in defensive EPA per dropback, and the unit as a whole was inconsistent throughout the 2025 season. This led to Darius Slay subtly calling out Tomlin in a recent podcast appearance.

“I ain’t gonna lie to you, that Pittsburgh stuff… that s—t’s backwards over there,” Slay said via Alex Kozora of Steelers Depot. “That ain’t [Teryl Austin] s—t. TA ain’t teach none of that s—t in f—king Detroit. [We played] outside leverage every f—king call. That’s why you see when [Jalen] Ramsey ever got scored on, he’s chasing someone that’s running away from outside leverage.”

Derrick Bell of Steelers Now chimed in with a clip from Week 18 of the 2024 season where Ja’Marr Chase beat Cory Trice on a quick-in breaker where Trice was playing outside leverage and the middle of the field was wide open, to which I added my own commentary via X saying the game and passed both Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin by.

In the most recent episode of The Pump Fake with myself and Todd Haley, the former Steelers offensive coordinator took exception to that comment.

“I’m going to rant at you and do my best Stephen A. Smith impression,” Haley said. “What are you talking about? This guy is so much smarter than you or I or anybody probably listening to this podcast. Football smart, world smart, everything. Smart people don’t let things pass them by… there are so many factors that go into playing good defense. I know Mike Tomlin had a big hand in how they played defense. Can he go out there and play it for them [though]? No. And no coach can, but you can only do everything you can to put the players in the best position to succeed.”

 
Yep. Tomlin was the smartest person in the room. Facts are simply facts sometimes.
 
He is smart. He figured out how to be the head coach of an iconic nfl team for 19 years. Stupid people don't do that.
It was just his time to go. His shtick got old years ago. He wasn't changing his philosophy . And the rest of the nfl knew what he was trying to do
 
Don't burn any bridges says Todd's internal voice......Todd Bridges?
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BLITZ said:
He is smart. He figured out how to be the head coach of an iconic nfl team for 19 years. Stupid people don't do that.
It was just his time to go. His shtick got old years ago. He wasn't changing his philosophy . And the rest of the nfl knew what he was trying to do
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He was a one trick pony who played for one of the most woke and clueless owners in the league. Had he played for any other team, he would have been viewed as the equivalent of Hue Jackson and fired years ago.
 
Don Kedic said:
He was a one trick pony who played for one of the most woke and clueless owners in the league. Had he played for any other team, he would have been viewed as the equivalent of Hue Jackson and fired years ago.
Click to expand...
Smart guy. To be a one trick pony and last 19 seasons in the NFL.
 
Don Kedic said:
He was a one trick pony who played for one of the most woke and clueless owners in the league. Had he played for any other team, he would have been viewed as the equivalent of Hue Jackson and fired years ago.
Click to expand...
take your politics elsewhere
 
Unfortunately, all that claimed knowledge that he possessed he couldn’t translate it to the field of play.

I’m pretty sure he made over $100 mil in his coaching career, not dumb at all.


PS Todd hasn’t been relevant since he was last here in Pittsburgh.




Salute the nation
 
I think the whole quote is a crock, but, Haley lost me with the “world smart” part. I know some intelligent people. I’ve had the privilege of meeting some REALLY smart people in business, finance, tech, medicine and other industries. Also, a few of those people could be categorized as polymaths or darn close to it. In my experience, most football coaches have not been in or even around that ballpark. Ben Johnson is one of the few that I’m uncertain about. He may be fairly intelligent. Spoiler, Mike Tomlin is not one of the few. As for using financial success as a marker of intelligence, oh boy, you can be financially successful and not intelligent. Those two things correlate less in the twenty first century than the previous one. Also, a person can be intelligent and it doesn’t necessarily translate to financial success.

There’s this weird cult of personality with Mike Tomlin. His former hires, some players, some media personalities and the casual NFL fan play into this. It’s a weird self-sustaining ecosystem. It just keeps nourishing and reinforcing itself. He will always have his acolytes. They are zealous. Engaging in that debate has nothing to do with factually true or false and it is an exercise in futility. When you take it a step further, you get into factors that contribute to an outcome. It’s a rabbit hole. Also, he’s going… going… gone. Enjoy baseball season, the pirates still suck. That being said, they are only five back. Three baseball references, hit my quota for the month, nice.
 
Todd is HC of one of the UFL teams.

Maybe that is his relevancy now…?


Salute the nation
 
i_just_dont_care said:
I think the whole quote is a crock, but, Haley lost me with the “world smart” part. I know some intelligent people. I’ve had the privilege of meeting some REALLY smart people in business, finance, tech, medicine and other industries. Also, a few of those people could be categorized as polymaths or darn close to it. In my experience, most football coaches have not been in or even around that ballpark. Ben Johnson is one of the few that I’m uncertain about. He may be fairly intelligent. Spoiler, Mike Tomlin is not one of the few. As for using financial success as a marker of intelligence, oh boy, you can be financially successful and not intelligent. Those two things correlate less in the twenty first century than the previous one. Also, a person can be intelligent and it doesn’t necessarily translate to financial success.

There’s this weird cult of personality with Mike Tomlin. His former hires, some players, some media personalities and the casual NFL fan play into this. It’s a weird self-sustaining ecosystem. It just keeps nourishing and reinforcing itself. He will always have his acolytes. They are zealous. Engaging in that debate has nothing to do with factually true or false and it is an exercise in futility. When you take it a step further, you get into factors that contribute to an outcome. It’s a rabbit hole. Also, he’s going… going… gone. Enjoy baseball season, the pirates still suck. That being said, they are only five back. Three baseball references, hit my quota for the month, nice.
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They are averaging out 11/12th in power rankings. I don’t think that equates to still sucking. They are five back in one of the most competitive divisions in Major League Baseball.

These aren’t the Pirates of old they are competitive.

Right now what holds them back to being more than that is a stable of relief pictures that could be labeled as sucking.

The rest of the motley crew… not so much.
 
slashsteel said:
They are averaging out 11/12th in power rankings. I don’t think that equates to still sucking. They are five back in one of the most competitive divisions in Major League Baseball.

These aren’t the Pirates of old they are competitive.

Right now what holds them back to being more than that is a stable of relief pictures that could be labeled as sucking.

The rest of the motley crew… not so much.
Click to expand...




For some reason, I’ve been able to watch some of their games on. TV.

They are not out of the race, they are a hells good team and just happen to be having a mid-season hiccup.

More entertaining than in the past.

They had a coaching turn over and have come out successful, I hope the same for the Steelers.




Salute the nation
 
Booted said:
Tomlin is smaht! Not dumb like everyone says. He's smaht and deserves respect!
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Tomlin's nothing to us now.
Not a coach.
Not a consultant.
We don't want to know him or what he does.
We don't want to see him at Latrobe or Acrisure Stadium.
When he sees our current players and coaches, we want to know a day in advance so we won't be there.
You understand?
 
Tomlin has moved on from the Steelers and we need to move on from Tomlin.
I’d rather focus on new beginnings rather than talking about a coach who overstayed his welcome.
I’m just thankful the nightmare has ended while I’m still alive.
 
slashsteel said:
They are averaging out 11/12th in power rankings. I don’t think that equates to still sucking. They are five back in one of the most competitive divisions in Major League Baseball.

These aren’t the Pirates of old they are competitive.

Right now what holds them back to being more than that is a stable of relief pictures that could be labeled as sucking.

The rest of the motley crew… not so much.
Click to expand...

I saw something similar to that in an ESPN article. I’m not a Bucco’s fan. As a little tyke, I started off as a Braves fan because of TBS. My stepfather was a Dodgers fan. I started half heartedly following them around 2010-ish. They’ve become the evil empire of the NL. So now, I seldom watch much baseball or have any allegiance.
 
American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football#cite_note-4"><span>[</span>nb 1<span>]</span></a> is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with possession of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with the ball or throwing it, while the defense, the team without possession of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance the ball at least ten yards in four downs or plays; if they fail, they turn over the football to the defense. If they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs to continue the drive. Points are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins. In the case of a tie after four quarters, the game enters overtime.

American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of soccer and rugby. The first American football game was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, using rules based on the rules of soccer at the time; by 1875, the sport had adopted rules similar to rugby union. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", established concepts that would define the sport, among them the snap, the line of scrimmage, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs. Later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone, and specified the size and shape of the football. The modern sport is closely related to Canadian football, which evolved in parallel with and at the same time as the American game; the two sports are considered the primary variants of gridiron football.

American football is the most popular sport in the United States; the most popular forms of the game are professional and college football, with the other major levels being high school and youth football. Over a million Americans played college or high school football in 2022, and the National Football League (NFL) has one of the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, ranks among the most-watched club sporting events globally. Other professional and amateur leagues exist worldwide, but the sport does not have the international popularity of other American sports like baseball or basketball; the sport maintains a growing following in the rest of North America, Europe, Brazil, and Japan. Flag football, a variant of the sport, will be played at the 2028 Summer Olympics.

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